FYI before you watch an 80 minute video (which I did):

"Amen has built a profitable business around the use of SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) imaging for purported diagnostic purposes.[6] His marketing of SPECT scans and much of what he says about the brain and health in his books, media appearances, and marketing of his clinics has been condemned by scientists and doctors as lacking scientific validity and as being unethical, especially since the way SPECT is used in his clinics exposes people to harmful radiation with no clear benefit."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Amen

As a european, it is sad to see, that the health system in the US is geared towards profit.

I wonder what the parents of one of his youngest patients (below ten IIRC) would say to those scientists and doctors about "no clear benefits". Their son showed abnormal behaviour, drawing notebooks full of pictures of him killing his classmates. The brainscan revealed a huge brain tumor. Amen had to call several brain surgeons, till he found one who was willing to operate the child. After the removal of the tumor his behaviour normalised.

Thanks for saving my time.

You don't save time by listening to only one side and forming an unbalanced opinion. One reason i like HN so much, is that you can read a debate and get both sides of the coin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic

Might be worth reading his Wikipedia page[1] for some criticism before taking his work too seriously.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Amen

to make it DRY

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24676962

Too much of this is religion dressed up. People paying for miraculous salvation. Martin Luther would have something to say here.

There is nothing miraculous about scanning the brain, and looking whats going wrong, it's a science based process.

I looked at it and did the questionnaire he supplies.

The scientific criticism is valid, there's no direct link between his scans and the outcomes. He uses the science as a correlation for everyday self help stuff and catholic salvation.

It's not coincedence he talks about believing in miracles and jokes about wanting to become a catholic priest as a child. He grew up seriously into the church.

People are essentially paying for salvation and at a steep price, this is exactly why the protestant churches got started. Look closer!

Except mainstream science rejects the validity of SPECT scans as a diagnostic tool for ADHD.

fMRI is getting closer as time passes and the techniques improve but still agreed to not be good enough yet.